Guide me Home
by Milu Georgia
Summary: Winter Fic Exchange / A short what-if Will had visited Bess a few weeks earlier in the middle of the stalker case. / Song Fic to 'Never Gonna Let You Down' by Colbie Caillat


I know it's incredibly short compared to the other two prompts, but time just ran out and up until today I had not the slightest idea what to write about. Usually the song sounds fitting for Henry and Bess, but we have so many of those stories in the fandom already and (barely) none of these siblings, so I figured why not. It was written in the middle of the night, so yeah, I'm aware it could have been done a million times better.

Prompts: Fic based on this song: Never Gonna Let You Down

* * *

 **Music tip:  
Colbie Caillat – Never Gonna Let You Down**

* * *

Guide me Home

* * *

 _ **Low**_

 _When you're feeling low  
And you just don't know where to run to_

She doesn't even realize she sighs out loud, until her brother points it out with a raised eyebrow in a way that is too similar to Henry to be of any comfort. "What's going on?"  
His voice is a mix of wary (I don't even want to know what's going on with the people you work with) and something that sounds suspiciously like worry. It's something she will never gets used to, because he either roams around in the world to do so on a regular basis or is too angry with her to care and notice.

"Nothing. The usual, work," she replies without even looking up from the file she reads on the couch, while Will pretends to watch a football game. For his job interview he has agreed to stay several days with Bess, until he can look at some places to live in with his own family. Hopefully. She still fears he is going to run off in the middle of it all, but it's the first time he has made it this far in settling down once and for all. It's progress and with Will it's everything she can get.

"Right."  
He sounds as convinced as she feels. It's not easy to be calm and relaxed on a work-free Sunday evening, when the fear of her stalker is ever-present in her mind. Her kids are out getting food with Henry, nothing to be bothered by, but ugly images appear in her head every so often and remind her that with someone able to hack her house anything is possible.

"What?" she asks way too sharp and he immediately picks up on the tone of her voice, but doesn't act on it. He wouldn't even know how to, she reminds herself bitterly and finally returns his look, while her fingers clutch at the latest report from the FBI.  
"Nothing," he replies and looks back to the flickering screen with unfocused eyes. "You just seem kind of low."

* * *

 _ **Broke**_

 _If your heart's been broke  
And you feel like you're all alone_

The first call she makes goes straight to Henry's phone and when the agonizing ringing stops, she starts without even greeting her clueless husband, "You need to get here immediately, Henry. He's- he's been here, in my office. Blake has already called the FBI, but I can't- _please_ Henry."  
She sounds so afraid, so purely terrified even to her own ears, that she accepts his short "I'll be there asap" without questioning the fact that he hung up too quickly and sounds nothing like the calm voice of her husband.

Minutes later, when she is about to loose it and Blake looks paler than she has ever seen him after her short and jumbled explanation, Will suddenly appears in front of her just outside of her office.

"What happened?"

"…Will? What… why are you here?"  
Her voice shakes, desperately she tries to hide it away under her usual professionalism, but there is nothing left to hide behind. Apparently Henry has forgotten his phone at home this morning, so Will had taken the call seeing her number.  
And the look in his eyes, after he took a few steps into her office and saw what put her so out of place for himself, is something she hasn't seen in a long, long time.

"Who did this, Lizzie?!"  
Unable to refuse him, when he is basically seething with rage and she still beside herself, they go into the abandoned room next to her office, while the FBI picks the place piece by piece apart. She tells him everything.  
The hacker at her own house, the pictures, the threats, the fear…

Not once does he interrupt her, not once does he mention the tears on her cheeks.

* * *

 _ **Close**_

 _I will hold you close  
You won't be alone anymore_

"I don't know what to do, Will."

The words burn on her tongue, but it is unusually soothing to say it out loud for once.  
For a moment he stays quiet and looks out of the car window into the rainy DC, before he deeply sighs. Normally it's the other way around. _'I need to go'_ , _'Something has come up'_ , _'They need me'_.  
Then she would sigh, accuse him of never being there for his family and, secretly thinking for herself, neither for her. She is a tough woman and for the scarce moments in which she needs comfort and help, she turns to Henry. But having her brother by her side, no matter how shortly, reminds her that there was a life before DC, before her husband, before the CIA.

It's a part she doesn't want to miss in her life, no matter how painful the memories are.

"Maybe I should just-"

"You won't quit!"  
His voice is sharp and accepts no talking back; a treat that is normally reserved for her. Before she is able to remind him that she is the older one and able to find a way out of this conversation, he turns in his seat to stare at her in a way he hasn't in a very, very long time.  
"You won't quit," he repeats softer this time, "You keep on saving this world and help to make it better. This idiot's days are numbered and if the FBI won't find him, I will." He makes no sense at all, her mind screams at her – how is _he_ of all people supposed to find him? -, but her heart holds on to the false hope he gives her and feels the pain ebb away slowly.

 _If you need something to believe in  
If you feel you've reached the end of the road  
Don't be afraid, I'll always guide you home_

And for the first time in decades his embrace doesn't feel cold or distant,  
but safe and like home.


End file.
